Zhaleh Semnani-Azad

Zhaleh Semnani-Azad serves as an Assistant Professor of Management at California State University, Northridge's Nazarian College of Business and Economics. Her interdisciplinary work bridges organizational psychology, communication, and technology studies.

Her educational background includes a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from the University of Waterloo (2015). Prior academic appointments include Research Professor and Assistant Professor positions at Clarkson University's Reh School of Business and Coulter School of Engineering, alongside Visiting Researcher roles at Columbia University's Jerome A. Chazen Institute for Global Business and Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute.

Her research examines how cultural frameworks shape workplace cognition, emotion, and behavior—particularly in international negotiations, diverse teams, and human-technology interaction. She integrates theoretical foundations from communication, psychology, and computer science to analyze cross-cultural dynamics in organizational settings.

Dr. Semnani-Azad's work has attracted significant recognition through media coverage in BBC Worklife, Harvard University's Program on Negotiation, and CSUN news outlets. Her findings on salary negotiation gaps and AI-enhanced cross-cultural dialogue reflect her commitment to practical applications of diversity research.

• Academy of Management award
• International Association for Conflict Management award

She has secured major research funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, Department of Homeland Security, and National Science Foundation—including CITeR (NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center). Her consulting and workshop engagements extend these insights to industry applications.